The archaeologist frowned, looking questioningly at the adventurers.
‘Well, I had assumed so.’
Sawwse burst out in her best fake laugh.
‘Rangrim just placed the emphasis on the wrong word. He actually meant: and then the university sent us to clear the tomb.’
‘I see,’ Lin said sceptically.
‘So these monsters. Goblins? Big spidery things? What are we dealing with here?’
Osrik found this tedious. He was keen to complete the job and get paid for his work. If he needed to use his axe that was all the same to him. The fact that there was potentially someone else searching for the same thing as them just aggravated his impatience.
‘Well, I don’t know. I haven’t actually been down there myself. It’s just something my colleagues have reported. Two of them were exploring below when they were attacked. They fled, but I couldn’t abandon this treasure trove.’
He pointed animatedly to the spinning top once again.
‘Treasure?’ questioned Rangrim. Although he had been zoning in and out, nursing his bruised head (and ego), Rangrim’s ears pricked at the sound of the ‘t’ word.
Lin grinned ear to ear.
‘Yes. There’s the potential to find,’ the archaeologist said, lowering his voice, ‘incredibly well-preserved corpses.’
‘Oh no, please don’t let this be an undead thing,’ Ruby mumbled nervously.
Lin either didn’t hear or chose to ignore the comment. However, his smile faded.
‘That is, only if the monsters down there haven’t destroyed them all already. Oh, and your colleague can’t have gotten too far ahead of you. I do hope she’s okay.’
‘Okay, don’t worry about it Lin,’ Sawwse replied. She nimbly climbed the shelf nearest to the archaeologist and put her arm around his shoulder. ‘We’ll clear the tomb and definitely not steal any of the artefacts while we’re down there.’
She winked exaggeratedly at the others, but spoke again before Lin had a chance to react.
‘Shall we go?’
Jumping down from the shelf, she began to walk across the room before stopping short after a few paces.
‘Wait, where’s Larn?’
Vadania shot Sawwse a look. Sawwse didn’t need to be telepathic to know what the elf was getting at. The team rushed to the stone staircase leading out of the room. Sawwse was light on her feet, and skipped down the stairs matching Vadania’s pace. A corridor opened up ahead of them before turning sharply to the right. The elf signalled for the rest of the team to wait while she scouted ahead.
‘Okay, before we action this, let’s assess our situation going forward and see if we can synergise our ideas.’ Corinne crouched alongside the gnome and spoke in hushed but extremely businesslike tones. ‘Sawwse, perhaps you’d like to give us a steer on that.’
Sawwse nodded, and began to speak, ‘It seems to me-’
‘Actually, before you get started, just one or two health and safety things we should go over-’
The gnome was pleased, she hadn’t really much of a clue about what to say, but had a feeling Corinne would be talking for a little while longer. As the impromptu health and safety briefing began, Sawwse peered around the corner and saw Vadania and Larn crouched stealthily and whispering in a heated discussion. She made her way over to them quietly.
‘I don’t need permission,’ Larn said.
‘In this instance, yes you do.’
Larn started to stand, but Vadania placed a hand on his shoulder and forced him to stay kneeling.
‘Let me go,’ he said, frustratedly.
‘We’ll tie them up and interrogate them.’
‘They are nothing. It’d be quicker if you let me go.’
Sawwse could see that one of Larn’s hands was on the hilt of his rapier. Past them, the corridor led into a wider room. The torchlight illuminated sandstone, causing the room to pulsate with yellow light. There were more shelves at the back of the room and one corner was mostly draped in blankets. Three goblins dressed in white smocks stood by the shelves, placing various artefacts into brown sacks. They had each painted their face a different colour: red, yellow and blue.
Attempting to stand again, a metallic whirring sound emitted from Larn’s legs. He forced himself upright and stared sternly into Vadania’s eyes. The elf followed suit and matched his gaze: a cosmos and a vacuum. They stood face to face, each firmly holding the hilts of their weapons. It was at this point that Sawwse brushed past them and strolled into the room, a huge grin on her face. Their faces dropped and both shifted uncomfortably, knowing they were no longer hidden.
The goblins only noticed Sawwse when she was right behind them. Upon hearing a noise, one of the goblins, a small red-faced creature with a fake-gold earring, turned and let out a high-pitched shriek. This was not without reason. If the sight of a tiny beaming gnome skipping towards you wasn’t worrying enough, two large sword-wielding creatures shuffling out of the shadows would generally be considered enough to shed anyone’s hair.
Sawwse had an idea, and placed her arm around the red goblin. She pulled a jade pendant from her pocket and held it in front of the goblin’s face.
‘This is a jewel from the Houses of Elbring. Duke Monmantra himself bequeathed it to me,’ she said, eyes sparkling.
The goblins shared a bewildered glance.
‘I’d infiltrated his palace in the guise of an errand girl,’ she continued, ‘garnering his trust, before becoming an indispensable member of his inner circle.’
Sawwse pulled out a folded piece of paper from another pocket. The three goblins had shed their initial suspicion and were being convinced by the gnome’s tale. Vadania and Larn inched closer, curious.
‘This map will guide you to the Elbring Palace treasure horde. I already took what I could carry, but there’s more there than you could possibly imagine.’ Sawwse held up the map, but swiped it away from the goblin before they could take it. ‘In return, tell us what you are doing here.’
The goblins turned to one another and spoke in a gruff language, unintelligible to Sawwse. She had learnt a couple of phrases in Goblin, but didn’t think ‘eyeball soup’ was appropriate in this context.
Larn took several long strides into the room, rapier in hand.
‘They are planning to kill you and take the map.’
Sawwse immediately backed away from the goblins.
‘How can you tell?’ she gasped.
‘I understand many languages.’
The goblins began to panic. Turning to Sawwse, the blue-faced goblin spoke quickly.
‘Wait. We just weren’t sure whether to trust you,’ he squealed and shifted his gaze to Larn. ‘You don’t know mud from mud-’
Gears turned and weight shifted instantaneously. In the blink of an eye Larn stood in front of the goblin. A hand full of chubby goblin fingers flew into the air and a howl filled the chamber.
Upon hearing the scream, Osrik made his way past Corinne’s health and safety spiel, and into the room. He noted Vadania and Larn with their weapons drawn; two goblins facing him, increasing amounts of panic on their faces; a third goblin clutching their arm, screaming; Sawwse holding some kind of jewel. He also saw that the room had an opening beyond the goblins and that a square stone block was suspended above it with rope. Grabbing his handaxe, he sent a missile flying through the rope, closing the opening.
Ruby, Rangrim and Corinne appeared in the room moments later. The yellow goblin assessed the scene and decided it was probably easier to pass out. The red goblin glanced down at his prone friends.
‘Mud.’
Looking up at the adventurers assembled in the room, he spoke again.
‘Look, there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. We’re just graverobbers like yourselves.’
‘Graverobbers? This is an undead thing. I can feel it,’ Ruby panicked.
‘Just let us go. You can take everything,’ the goblin continued.
Ever observant, Vadania asked why they were dressed as they were.
‘There’s some kind of cult downstairs. We were blending in.’
The blue goblin continued to howl with pain on the floor, clutching his fingerless hand to his chest and rolling from side to side. Dragging their friend from the floor, the other two goblins began to walk toward the corridor. Stopping beside Sawwse, the peculiar red creature looked at the map in her right hand.
‘Check the wall when you get downstairs,’ he said, holding out his hand. Sawwse relinquished her fake map and the goblins fled the chamber.
‘Well that could have gone better,’ Sawwse said, exhaling. She wandered over to Larn and looked down at the sticky mauve bloodstains on the ground. Vadania spoke next.
‘Anything to say for yourself?’
The stooping man took out a handkerchief and wiped the remains of the blood from his rapier before sheathing it.
‘No,’ he replied, simply.
Sawwse grimaced.
‘Let’s keep moving,’ Osrik grumbled, giving Larn a sour look.
It was clear the older dwarf was getting impatient. He’d been part of too many mercenary companies not to recognise a loose cannon. Occasionally they drew people to them, branched off from the company and became leaders or tyrants. They usually wound up dead long before that happened.
The guild proceeded through several similar chambers. It was clear that these rooms had already been excavated. There were more lightweight shelves alongside the walls and lit sconces above them. Having paid little attention to the artefacts in these rooms, the adventurers found themselves in a longer, larger space, some kind of throne room or ceremonial hall.
Eight statues stood facing each other, spaced evenly. Each figure was a humanoid body, with a different bird’s head resting upon the broad shoulders, and a symbol of two suns had been carved into each forehead.
Larn stepped forward first and examined the nearest statue. It seemed to Sawwse that its owl head looked slightly furious. She pictured an owl posing as a model for the sculptor, getting increasingly annoyed that it didn’t look very much like her at all.
‘It’s… wrong.’
Larn furrowed his brow and was met near the statue by Vadania. The ancient glyphs that bordered each room had been meticulously engraved into the stone. Unlike the glyphs, the symbols on the statues had been scratched into them carelessly.
‘Larn is right,’ Vadania said. ‘These symbols don’t fit with the rest of the iconography. They must be-’
A yelp came from across the room as Vadania spoke. Opposite them, Rangrim had wandered over to a statue of a falcon, the eyes of which appeared to be glowing. Suddenly blinded by a bright white light shooting out of the statue, Rangrim fell backwards just in time to avoid a tongue of flame that lashed out of the falcon’s beak.
‘These traps have been laid recently,’ said Vadania.
The elf wordlessly began to search the statues, making her way to each one in turn, and running her hands over their surfaces, feeling for a notch or lever that might halt the trap. She momentarily stooped down to drag Rangrim out of the way where he lay beside the falcon. A combination of his head wound and the sudden darkness inflicted upon him by the beam of light, meant that Rangrim had fallen asleep again moments after being assaulted by the statue’s trap.
Creeping forward through the room, Sawwse turned to Osrik and spoke.
‘You’re well used to this, I suppose.’
Looking down at the gnome, Osrik smiled. There was always someone in the group who sought friendship. It was generally a bad idea. He’d lost and grieved for too many friends in his younger years.
‘I suppose.’
Sawwse had begun to hum a little tune while they paced the room, looking from statue to statue. Gnomes are an interesting sort, Osrik thought. The various run-ins he’d had with other gnomes in the past hadn’t been particularly pleasant. They had been tricksters all. Not exactly evil or even a source of great animosity, but frustrating. Meddling in affairs that shouldn’t have concerned them, or in the rare instances that they were colleagues, hampering the missions with pranks. This one seemed different, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
‘Actually, most of my work has been above ground,’ he said.
‘Ah, so you must have missed the earth.’
‘No. I never knew it,’ he replied, sadly.
Sawwse sensed some discomfort and decided not to pursue the conversation. With all the traps disarmed, they had reached the end of the chamber. Vadania walked back to begrudgingly drag Rangrim across the floor. After a few failed attempts to wake him up, Ruby retrieved a small vial from her large rucksack. She unplugged the cap and held it underneath his nose, rousing the young dwarf from his sudden slumber. Moments later, Rangrim sat up and heaved his stomach contents all over the floor beside him.
‘What the hell was in that vial?’ Rangrim spluttered.
Ruby searched the vial for a label.
‘Not sure,’ she answered, shyly.
She began to sniff the vial, but looked down at the mess and thought better of it.
A fiery explosion echoed from a room nearby and the end of the corridor extending ahead of them was momentarily lit with an orange glow. A split second later came the sound of a horrific scream, like an underwater roar, throaty and wet.
Rangrim got himself up and followed the rest of the team through the corridor. They emerged in a long narrow room, pockmarked with deep, water-filled holes. Some distance away from them was a cowering red robed figure with three creatures surrounding it. All three had amphibian heads, with sharp teeth and long claws.
Upon seeing the adventurers arrive in the room, the creatures quickly dove into the pools of water, swimming downwards, deep and fast.
The group approached the figure with caution, peering into the deep pools as they did so.
‘Have those vicious creatures gone?’ the robed figure asked, shaking.
‘Yes, it’s okay to come out now,’ answered Vadania, holding out her hand as she realised that this must be the research assistant Lin had mentioned.
‘You arrived just in time. Had you been a moment later, they would’ve eaten me,’ the figure said, using Vadania’s proffered hand to come to standing and scanning the new faces around her, before meeting and holding Osrik’s gaze with a sickening smile, drawing herself up to her full height.
‘Disguises were always more Francesco’s thing, Alla’fyr,’ said Osrik through gritted teeth. His furrowed brow did not mask his tension, nor did the ever tightening grip on his battle-axe.
‘Yes. I see.’
Pulling back her crimson hood, Alla’fyr’s dark, hollow eyes gleamed in her skull-like face.
‘I assume you’ve also come for the idol?’ she said, quickly sizing up the group. Her eyes lingered slightly longer on Sawwse than the others. ‘Shame. You obviously know someone with good intel, but I’m afraid you’ve arrived too late.’ She raised her arm into the air.
‘Get back,’ Osrik roared, forcing Sawwse and Ruby behind him.
A wall of fire erupted in front of the adventurers, blocking their path. The heat distorted her vision, but Sawwse saw the woman staring at her and shaking her head.
‘You’re a fool, Osrik Bitterforge.’
She walked further into the tomb and left the group to suffer the blaze.
Chapter 12: Terror Seeks the Infirm
‘Due to your long-standing service to this island, the quality of your work here, and the account you gave in your defence, we have agreed to lessen your punishment.’
The chamber in which Corinne Brightwood sat was grand in design. Ornate golden statues adorned the walls. Gold also lined the arms of the judges’ chairs and the pews on either side of the room. A marble sculpted podium was erected at one end of the room. This was typically where politicians addressed each other in parliamentary debates, but with an island as obsessed w
ith rules as Regularis, the chamber was used just as often for disciplinary hearings, like this one.
‘Please stand to hear our verdict.’
None of this process had taken Corinne by surprise. Not really, anyway. She knew that she’d bypassed a regulation, and it was only fair that she was reprimanded. Hadn’t she spent decades in the civil service ensuring that the regulations were upheld?
She stood and faced the three judges.
‘The court of Regularis finds the defendant guilty.’
Corinne waited for the rest of the sentence. They were meant to say, ‘guilty of a misdemeanour’, meaning that as the offence itself was only minor according to the statutes, it warranted merely a formal warning and a slap on the wrist. ‘Guilty’ without the caveat meant something else entirely.
‘We therefore decree that you are expelled from office permanently and immediately, with-’
This sent her reeling. For Corinne, her job was everything.
‘-an additional six month ban on magic.’
‘But surely... this isn’t quite... right,’ she managed to gasp, flabbergasted.
‘It is our right, Ms. Brightwood, to determine the correct punishment as we see fit.’
‘What about the Gondromma Convention? Is this not an infringement of my human rights?’
Her mind raced through legislature and rules of law, suddenly on the backfoot.
‘You forget that, ever since the Separation, we set our own rules,’ one of the judges said with a barely concealed smile.
‘But all I did was transmute a loaf of bread.’
‘We’ve heard your case already, Ms. Brightwood. Verdict so ordered.’
The gavel slammed against the brass gong, ringing out the sentence across the chamber, and closing a chapter in Corinne Brightwood’s life.
--
The wall blazed a dark red, scorching the sandstone. Vadania and Larn instinctively dived into the nearest pools of water. Below the room they found what appeared to be an extensive network of waterways: narrow tunnels that led every which way. Vadania grabbed Larn’s arm and pointed to a passageway that led upward. They swam through the tunnel and emerged back in the room, on the other side of the fire, gasping for breath. The other five adventurers stepped back from the intense heat.
In the Grip of Time Page 12